In paper mill repulpers, the feed stock often consists, mostly, of dry pulp supplied as bales tied with strapping, such as metallic wires to form blocks of about three hundred pounds each. For unbaling, these metallic wires are usually manually cut by pliers. Since the lower section of each cut wires remains stuck under the heavy bale, the worker cannot remove the cut wire immediately. These wires may find their way eventually into slots or cavities of nearby machinery and damage the same. Also, since these wires are generally tied taut around the bale, they tend to whip when released by the cutting pliers. This constitutes a safety hazard for the worker.
A bale dewiring tool is described in applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,801, issued Sept. 14, 1982. This patented bale dewiring tool has a foot which engages the wire by sliding under it before cutting. It allows a single operator to cut the wire and with the same tool to grab and to pull it, so as to remove the same for discharge into a scrap cart. A number of drawbacks appears when using this patented dewiring tool. The tool sometimes slides under the first layer of paper instead of over it. There are no means for sensing the location of the wire to be cut and, thus, this has to be done de visu. It is somewhat inefficient because each tool can retain only one wire at a time; since a bale is normally tightened by four wires, this means that each wire must be completely pulled out and discharged to scrap before another wire is tackled. Moreover, a separate coiler former device is required for disposal of the scrap wires. Finally, wear is a problem for the cam grabber since it must bite into the wire to retain the latter.